Container



March 25, 1941. I CAMPBELL I 2,236,491

CONTAINER Filed June 30, 1937 This invention relates to a. container andmore particularly tothe type of container in "which sterile fluids, suchas intravenous solutions, are.

carried.

An object of the invention is to provide a container having improvedsealing means which is efl'ective in maintaining a vacuum and which maybe easily and conveniently removed to premore the container forwithdrawal of its contents.

A specific object is to provide means Ior seaI- ing a containeremploying a flexible sealing member and including sin-table structurefor clamping the flexible member against a plug or closure. Otherobjects will appear as the specification proceeds.

The invention is illustrated in a preferred embodiment by the whichaccording to my invention and with-all parts in place; Figure 2, a. planview of the container as Figure 1, but with the cap and metal diskremoved; Eigure 3, a sectional view in elevation, the section beingtaken as indicated at line 3 of Figure 1; Figure 4, 'a perspective viewof the cap; Figure 5, a perspective view of the metal disk; Figure 6, aperspective view of the clamp ing ringyand Figure 7, a perspective viewof the flexible disk.

In the illustrations given, A desimatu a contamer; B, a plug or closure;C,-'a sealing mem- 4 pair of openings l3 I, which may be of theher; andD, the means by which the plug and sealing member are held and conflned.

The, container A may be of any suitable type or size. As here shown'itcomprises a bottle having a neck. ill equipp d with ribs or threads Hextending therearound' TheplugBisseatedwithintheopeningof neck II andpreferably has a top flange l2 extending horizontally from the top ofthe. plug and resting upon the top edge of the neck II. A

shape shown in. 8. 3.'extend through the plug,

. and if desired, a glass tube ll may be extended through opening II,the head ll of the tube resting within the shallow recess at the upperendoiopeningl3 Rreferably the p ugsshould be of or other resilientmaterial, and-itis especially desirable that the portion of the plug Mthe 'annular flange I! be of resilient material.

. Over plug 3.1m thefleniblesealingmemher which commisesarelatively.tlln disk or g heet '0! soft rubber or accompanying drawing,' in

Figure 1 is a plan view of a container sealed sued PATENT OFFICECONTAINER Argyle Campbell, Glenview, 11L, assignor to BaxterLaboratories, Inc a corporation of Delaware Application June 30, i937,Serial No. 151,250

2 Claims. (01. sis-s7) Disk C may be circular in form and is preferablycoextensive with the top surface of plug B.

The means D by which the. plugand sealing member are con-fined in placecomprises a. clamphis ring it which has its lower edge engaged under thebeads H on the exterior of the bottle neck. Th top of the ring is turnedinwardly forming a horizontal flange H which extends over the edgeportion of the flexible disk C. As

shown more clearly in Figure 6 of the drawing,

the flange .II has one area cut away, th out It! extending to the baseof the flangeand into side walls I. The purpose of this cut is toiexposethe'edge of the flexible disk at this area. so that when the seal is tobe brokem'the edge of the disk may be grasped by the fingers or suitableinstrument and tom 01!.

Over the disk and clamping member, I prefer to place a. metal disk. 2|which is also circular and has its edge portion extending over thehorizontal flange ll of the clamping member. As shown in Figure 3, disk20 is substantially coextensive with the annular flange H of the plugand sealing member 0.

Over the metal disk 2| is placed the cap 21 which at its lower edge isengaged under bead and has its side walls 22 extending adjacent thewalls I. of the clamping member. The top of the cap is cut away at thecenter leaving the flange 13 which has its inner peripheral edgeextending inwardly of the outer periphery of the metal disk II. Ifdesired, a tear flap 24 maybe provided. The metal of the WP may becomparatively thin so that with the aid oi the flap, the metal may betorn away along the diametrically oppcoitethe weakened lines 25. -Withthis construction-the cap can be readily from the after being severedflh Sm or thecap halves notch rear wallet the cap to employed m1umembodiment is more from the applicationSerialNo,v 86,878, "28, 4936.};lt'isunder totearbeyond, 'thebottomv ,50" aka..-"Iheparticulortypeo1cap' No. 2,108,583 which isstood, however, thatany suitable cap or holding means may be used for confining the membersin place in the manner described.

The improved container may be used for various and many purposes, butsince it is particularly useful for shipping and storing intravenoussolutions while maintaining the solutions under partial vacuum, theoperation of the device will be explained in connection vwith this use.

After the container A is filled with the solution, the plug B is placedin the neck and the disk C placed on top of the plug. When a suitablevacuum has been drawn, or produced the flexible disk will operate as avalve and will be drawn tight against the plug to prevent the admissionof air. Being resilient and flexible, the disk will be pulled downwardlyinto the top of openings i3 and i4, and slight depressions will appearon the top of the disk which mark the location of the openings throughthe plug. .Being thus drawn into the openings of the plug, the disk ismain-'- tained in tight engagement with the top, edges of these openingsso that there is less likelihood of air escaping into the container. Inthe case of opening l3 where the glass tube it is used, the disk will bedrawn slightly into the end of the tube and will make tight engagementwith the top interior edge of the tube.

The seal formed as above described, however, is not sufiicient for anextended period of time, and a permanent seal is provided by clampingthe edges of the flexible member to the plug and securing the wholestructure firmly tothe' container. This is accomplished by placing theclamping member 15 over the disk C and turning it tobring its lower edgeinto tight engagement with the under side of threads Ii. It will be observed that the horizontal flange ll of member l6 extends over theperipheral edge portion of disk C and is disposed directly over the topedge of 'the container neck and annular flange II of plug B. As theclamping member [6 is turned down, this horizontal flange I1 presses theperipheral portion of disk C against the annular flange l2, and alsocauses the flange I! to be pressed tightly against the top edge'oi thecontainer.

To provide a. more firm pressure against the edge of disk C, I place themetal disk 20, over the clamping ring, and then place the cap 2| overthe disk 20. When the cap 2| is tightly turned into place, it will beardown firmly against the edge portion of metal disk 20, and this pressureis transmitted through horizontal flange ll of member 16 to the edgeportion of the flexible disk. In' this way the soft-flexible disk ispressed into sure sealing engagement with the resilient annular flangeof the plug. Also the plug is securely clamped to the container and heldfirmly in place. With this construction the openings through the plugare doubly sealed, bea ing sealed first through the engagement of thedisk with the top edge of these "openings, and secondly by having theedge portions of the disk clamped firmly to the plug flange.

When the contents of the container are to be used, the tear'flap 2| maybe grasped with the fingers and pulled to sever the front side of thecap. After spreading thesides oi the cap it will fall free of thebottle,and the metal disk II is then loose and may. be'removed.

Removal of the cap and metal disk, however, does not release the vacuum,and the openings through the plug are still held by the double seal. Toexpose these openings so that the contents may be withdrawn, theoperator grasps the flexible disk C at the cut away area of member 16where the edge is exposed and pulls this disk free of the container. Itmay often occur that the disk is so tightly held under horizontal flangell that it' will not pull from under this flange but 5 will tear.Whether the flexible disk tears or not makes little difl'erence becauseit is always possible to remove the portion over openings I3 and II andpermit the removal of the contents.

, In the common use of such containers the clamping ring I6 is left inplace to maintain the plug in position during subsequentoperations. Hereit may be noted, however, that were it not for the cut l8 in member Ii,it would be exceedingly diflicult to remove the flexible disk since theedges of the disk would then be tightly held under the flange with noplace to obtain a start in removing this disk.

As shown inthe drawing, I prefer to locate the two openings l3 and M inline with the cut it in member l6. By this arrangement, the user will berequired to uncover opening Mfirst, thus causing the air to enter thisopening before it has an opportunity to enter the opening 13 which isfarther removed from cut 18. Thus when the container is standing in theposition shown in Fig. 3, the air entering the container will be causedto enter through opening it and thus remain at the top of the containerwithout passing through the liquid. 11f the air which enters the bottleupon the breaking of the vacuum should pass through opening I3, it wouldbe guided by the glass tube 15 to the bottom of the liquid and thenallowed to bubble back through the liquid to the top of the-container.Thus the incoming aid would be washed by the liquid and the liquid wouldbe to some extent thereby contaminated.

In some instances, it may be desirable to have the air first enterthrough opening I3 as, for example, if the bottle should be inverted,the air entering would pass through the tube and come to rest at thebottom of the bottle which now, after inversion, is the top, and thusthe air would not be permitted to pass through the liquid. To accomplishthis purpose, the plug B would be rotated to bring the opening 13 closerto the cut l8 while opening ll would be on the opposite side.

The important advantage of the cut I8 is that it permits an alignment ofthe openings whereby the user can be caused, in the normal operation ofopening the container, to uncover one opening before he uncovers theother. In this connection, it will be understood that there may be 5:)any number of openings and that they may be arranged in any desiredalignment.

It will be understood that while 'we'have shown telescoping cap membersfor clamping the plug in position, the cap members may, if desired, 00

be equipped with threads for securing the cap therefrom, but theappended claims should be construed as broadly as permissible, in viewof the prior art.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by letters patent, is: I

'1. In combination with a. container having a neck with its openingclosed by a plug, said plug 1 having at least one opening therethrough,a clamping ring engaging said container and having an edge extendingover.said plug, a flexible sealing diskover said plug and havingitsperipheral edge portion extending between said clamping ring edge andsaid plug, a metal disk extending over said flexible disk and over saidclamping ring edge, and a cap extending over said metal disk.

2. In combination with a container having an opening and a rubber plugclosing said opening, said plug being provided with at least one openingtherethrough, a flexible rubber sealing disk extending over said plug, aclampingmember engaging said container and having its central area cutaway, said member being'provided with an integral endless peripheralportion extending around said container, the inner peripheral edgeportion of said member extending over the edge portion of said sealingdisk, said inner peripheral edge portion having an area cut away so asto expose a part of the edge of said disk, and means secure with saidcontainer for bearing against said peripheral edge portion of saidclamping member to maintain said rubber disk and plug in resilientengagement. g

3. In combination with a, containerhaving an opening and a closure forsaid opening, said closure being provided with at least two passagestherethrough, a flexible disk extending over said closure, a clampingring engaging said container, said clamping ring being provided with anintegral endless peripheral portion extending around said container andhaving an edge portion extending over said flexible disk and pressing itagainst said closure, said edge portion having an area cut away toexpose a portion of the peripheral edge of said flexible disk, saidcutaway edge portion being in alignment with said two passages.

- ARGYLE CAMPBELL.

